We have the equivalent, Nest. DH installed ours.

DH is handy and he said it depends.

My daughter has a video doorbell and she installed it herself.

A homeowner has a few options when it comes to Ring. We opted for hardwired cameras, not the Ring doorbell and they were easy for someone with a moderate amount of DIY electrical knowledge. There are also battery operated options which are very simple.

We passed on the doorbell camera, and purchased four Ring security cameras instead. We had a need for increased security at the time.

From what I understand from friends, the doorbell Ring is very easy to install and to link up to your phones.

edited to add: You do need to have some computer/phone skills in order to get the program installed and working. Ring had made sure that their instructions are user friendly and, at the time, their customer service was remarkably helpful.

We have the Blink version, very easy to install.

I have a battery powered one. I installed it myself. My house is brick and it was easy to screw it into the mortar. As for syncing it with the wifi, it was easy. I have two batteries for it and swap them when one gets low.

Adding: How do you USE your house cameras? Do you look at what's captured? How have they been useful to you?

When you find dead critters on your walk you can find out why/how. When you are expecting a delivery you can see if it arrived--send a neighbor to retrieve it if necessary. Was able to aid the cops when a drunk driver tore through the neighborhood and hit a few things. Can monitor the snow level when away from home. Can see who's at the door when down in the office working, see if it's worth being disturbed over.

I get real,tired ( dedtired) of watching the same neighbors walking the same dog ’ not that it bothers me. I did see one neighbor deliberately walking his dog into,the center of my front yard every night .I politely asked him to stay on the sidewalk.

I can keep an eye on packages. Best of all I can see when the cleaning lady comes and goes. Im thinking of adding a camera in the back, just for security. My street is very safe.

We don't have one, and had always thought our street very safe. The neighbors are observant and look out for each other.

The other afternoon, DH noticed someone walking and doing lots of looking down our street, so watched him. It's a dead end, we're the first house at the entrance. He came back out, and DH actually got in his truck and followed him to see where he was going, became satisfied it was just someone reasonably dressed out walking. Later that night (1:30 AM), recorded on their ring, man in same clothing came back and tried the doors on the most expensive house on the block. Also a house on the two-house dead end below us. They heard him, their dog alerted them and they called the police who arrived promptly but he must have ducked into someone's landscaping and wasn't found. The police said from watching the 'Rings' - no one they had on their radar or had ever seen before. DH has the habit of leaving his garage door wide open when he's home and projecting, in and out. He's quit doing that the last two days.

We're wired for security and there is a metal small sign up at top of our driveway. We've never subscribed to the service and neither did the former owner. We hadn't seen a need. Rethinking the security issue now.

We had a ring doorbell/camera that was battery and very easy to install, program and keep charged. Ring gives you step by step simple instructions. Don't lose the special screwdriver needed. Be aware that there is a setting on Amazon Alexa that turns on or off "sidewalk" monitoring that you need to determine which setting you want. What they don't really mention is that your wifi speed needs to be fast enough to run any of the cameras sold. If it's slow, then you will get the doorbell notification (no sound to speak to anyone) and the video will show up hours later (if at all) and be useless for your needs. Getting a wifi "booster" installed did not help. We gave it to our granddaughter when she moved to a townhouse and it works fine for her. We ended up having cameras installed through our home security system company who advised us of what minimum speed would work. We are so much happier with the real-time performance and reliability of these cameras for security purposes. We check the saved video from overnight to make sure we don't miss an event of concern. ETA: we had to change internet provider to get high enough speed to operate the cameras and doorbell.

I'm a real novice here.,,,,are ALL cameras connected to WIFI? Reason for asking: our wifi is part of monthly cable bill....correct? So normally I would shut down (cable, phone, internet) if I were a snow-bird going south for a number of months....and vice/versa. At substantial savings. In order to have a "security camera" I would need to continue to pay the monthly internet bill at both places? Correct?

My house had an existing intercom system so it was a bit of a process to replace the front door intercom with a video doorbell because the wiring was different than a standard doorbell. At the time, the battery-operated version was not available. Mine is the Google version, Nest. I use it to see who is at the door and when packages are delivered. The lag time between when the doorbell is rung and when I'm able to connect from my tablet is too long to actually have a conversation with whomever is at the door, but the video is pretty much instantaneously viewable from my tablet.

@sc_irish, yes, you would need to have active wifi to interact with a video doorbell. However, you might be able to reduce your service to a low speed wifi only version when you are away.

A neighbor with a camera doorbell posts on our fb group, videos of guys testing her truck doors in the middle of the night. Night time riffling through unlocked vehicles is a periodic problem around here. Luckily theft hasn't escalated to daytime hours, as of yet.

We don't have a camera but do have a wireless battery doorbell for front and side doors. Super basic but super easy. Had to look up brand: it was SadoTech White Wireless Doorbell Kit.

I ordered the Ring and it will be here Monday. IDK how fast my wifi is but hopefully fast enough.

The package containing my new microwave went missing a few days ago. The Walmart vendor sent a replacement but I am hoping the Ring will dissuade any further thefts. Theft is such an ugly, personal crime, and it ends up costing all of us, not just the theft victim.

lucillle, type in "internet speed test" and many results turn up. It's easy to get an estimated speed if you are wondering.

Thank you just tried that and my speed should be adequate.

Lucille -- Sorry you've been a victim. When we were burgled, it took me years to get over feeling violated.

I don't have one but during Christmas this year I thought my son sent me one and I thought, "oh, no he's spent a lot of money on something I don't need." But it turned out it was for his stepmother, so that's good! He didn't wrap anything, just sent all his gifts for everyone to my house directly from Amazon since he was still over in England at the time. We had a heck of a time trying to figure out with him via messaging whose gift was whose.

I'm sorry you had your microwave stolen, Lucille. I'm glad I've never had that happen before, so far anyway. I've had boxes sit on my porch for a couple days because I didn't realize they were delivered, one being a food box, so that wasn't good. Maybe I do need one! I would like to know who is letting their dog poo in my front yard. It's really annoying.

I have a Nest doorbell camera. And for the first time since we bought our house in 1995, I have a doorbell that rings inside the house! It's taken that long to get my husband to fix it......

I love it as it catches the entire front yard. We have a hedge around the front yard so it really doesn't get much for the street, but it's my yard and who may be coming to our door that concerns me the most.

I think it took him about an hour altogether to install it, which included me installing the apps to both our phones.

It‘s not difficult to install. We have 3 Ring doorbell cameras on 3 doors for package delivery. they make it easy to know which door has the package.

My sister installed hers easily. I don't want one, and never seriously considered getting one.

One of the unexpected bonus features of our cameras is that we can see the amazing assortment of 4, 6, 8, and 0 legged animals that meander, fly, scurry, or slither across our property at night. I had no idea that there was such activity in our suburban neighborhood! I always have a sense of anticipation in the morning when I see that there were numerous events overnight.

The benefit of the security light feature is that motions set off the lights and recording. We can program how far we want the sensors to reach and how sensitive they are.

My Ring arrived yesterday and I charged the battery overnight, and installed it early this morning. I am no kind of techno whiz but it was very easy to set up. It has a customizable feature too, so you can sketch the area you want monitored, so I made sure I was not including any of the neighbor's door areas because more frequent notifications run the battery charge down and I don't need to know when they come and go. For $99 it was certainly a worthwhile purchase and while nothing prevents theft 100% it does bring some peace of mind since I no longer drive I do depend on delivery for all sorts of things.

Excellent!

I just got one, too, battery operated, and I think the hardest part was figuring out how to open it to get to the battery the first time. Thankful for youtube!

Funny story: we don’t have a Ring but instead have Eufy doorcams.

DH is out of town this evening. Our son brought me two fresh-baked sourdough bagels (that his wife had just baked) and before he got to my kitchen with them, I had a text from DH asking what Son had brought me! Obviously DH was bored in his hotel room and checking his Eufy app on his phone every time it went off!

A drawback is, as someone else mentioned, 4-legged critters setting it off. I’d like to know where that strange cat is going every night between 2-3 a.m. when he crosses my front porch.

When we got a new router, all the computers, phones, etc. had to be re-set to the new wi-fi set-up, including the Ring doorbell. We did the electronics, but had no idea how to do the Ring, so I called them for help and got someone very patient on the phone helping us through it. (We had to detach it with a special tool which we fortunately had.)

Ring is helpful when packages are delivered since we have porch pirates in the neighborhood, and some delivery people find it too tricky to set the package 2 feet to the side so it's not visible from the street.)

Perhaps a lower tech version:

I guess these are more useful for people unlike us. We're home most of the time, and our house is set back from the street enough that a delivery isn't obvious to passers-by.

socks -- You need a sign: "Place deliveries HERE." Could be a chalked rectangle on the pavement.